WHAT BLACK BEAR BELIEVES
Why?
Black Bear believes in infrastructure for a cleaner world. We view the waste tire problem and the threat of climate change as opportunities to make meaningful change.
How?
Using a circular economy model, we upcycle end-of-life-tires into high quality, safe, easy to use and sustainable Carbon Black products.
What?
Our long-term goal is to upcycle all waste tires and thus reduce oil use, with CO2 emission reductions equivalent to planting more than 1 billion trees.
OUR TEAM
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Ad van OorschotSales and R&D DirectorAd van Oorschot
After finishing his chemical education (HBO) he started working as a R&D chemist and applications laboratory group leader. Later in his career he also finished an executive MBA in strategic marketing/general management. Getting in contact with customers and the market he decided to give his career a commercial twist and since then he has been working at the edge of sales, marketing and technical service, including a position at Cabot as technical service manager. In these positions he also gained a lot of international carbon black experience. He has been working for over 35 years in ink & coating related industries.
Evelien DittrichHREvelien Dittrich
Evelien started her career at FrieslandCampina, where she fulfilled various HR roles for over ten years. She had a regional responsibility in south east Asia for three years, where she was involved in the HR development for emerging markets. When coming back to the Netherlands Evelien became HR responsible for the Dutch Retail business. She combined this with an executive MBA at the Rotterdam School of Management. After finishing her EMBA in early 2019, Evelien was ready to take on a new challenge and made the move towards Black Bear Carbon, where started as Head of HR.
Hugo LiebrandEngineering ManagerHugo Liebrand
Hugo holds an MSc in Mechanical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology. His thesis on oil-water separation formed the base of a startup at which he started his career. He spent the next ten years developing new technologies in water treatment and managing projects in the oil & gas industry. After spending 3 years in the USA, where he worked for a 3D-printer manufacturer, he returned to the Netherlands where he joined Black Bear Carbon in 2019. Within Black Bear, Hugo is responsible for the engineering projects.
Jeroen HofstraProject ManagerJeroen Hofstra
Jeroen graduated from the Delft University of Technology with a MSc degree in Construction Management and Engineering. In 2013 he started his career as a risk manager at the infrastructure department of Fluor. After two years he moved to Vietnam to manage a start-up for the development of a chain of boutique hotels. Since January 2018 he is responsible for project controls, project management and financial matters of current and future projects at Black Bear. When not working, Jeroen enjoys football every week and playing his guitar so now and then.
Michiel VromansMaintenance engineerMichiel Vromans
Michiel holds a BSc degree in Mechanical Engineering from the Eindhoven University of Technology and a MSc degree in Sustainable Energy from the Danish University of Technology, in which he focused on thermal energy systems. He has worked as production engineer at high-tech manufacturer ASML and as project engineer at district heating company Ennatuurlijk. In Black Bear he is part of the engineering team and responsible for operations and maintenance. He joined Black Bear in 2019 to be part of a sustainable company with high impact potential and to join an inspiring, entrepreneurial team.
Victor VreekenCEOVictor Vreeken
Victor Vreeken (48) is holding master degrees in Mechanical Engineering, Chemical Engineering and Business Administration (MBA). Before joining Black Bear, Vreeken spent over 8 years at Avantium, active in the emerging industry of renewable and sustainable chemistry. Most recently he was Chief Operations Officer for Renewable Polymers business within Avantium. Vreeken joined Black Bear Carbon in January 2020 in the position of Chief Technology Officer. In August 2021 he transitioned into the role of CEO.OUR SUPERVISORY BOARD
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Koos BreenChairmanKoos Breen (Chair)
Koos was educated as an engineer at TU Delft and carries a bachelor’s degree from Erasmus school of economics. He worked 24 years for Philips in Consumer Electronics , mainly in Asia. In 1997, he followed the Executive Program at Wharton. In 1998 Koos joined the management of van Leeuwen Buizen where he became CEO in 2000. In 2007 he moved to the firm’s BoD. Later on, he expanded his impact by becoming part of the board at Ahrend, Koninklijke Smilde, Teijin Aramid, and Black Bear.
Jos SchneidersMemberJos Schneiders
Jos is a mechanical engineer from TU Eindhoven. He has spent 35 years at DSM in various executive and presidential positions. Since 2008 he is Chairman at Limburg Ventures and in 2011 he also started as Chairman at the Board of Limburg Economic Development. He plays a similar role at the educational institution Arcus. Since 2014 he is a member of the Supervisory Board of Chemelot Ventures, one of Black Bear’s investors.
Rob van der MeijMemberRob van der Meij
Rob is a chemical engineer from TU Delft and has worked both in the corporate, strategy consulting and start-up world of chemicals, process and water technology. Rob has held management positions at Akzo and Shell. He was also founder and CEO of KiOR. Rob completed the New Board Program at Neyenrode Business University. At this moment Rob is Senior Investment Manager at Capricorn, one of Black Bear’s investors.
OUR TECHNOLOGY
Steel Removal
Carbonisation
De-agglomeration
Pelletising
Drying
Finished Product
OUR PARTNERS
Clean Future Synergy
Chemelot Ventures
Circle Economy“A social enterprise, organised as a cooperative, Circle Economy accelerates the transition to circularity through on the ground, action focused, development of practical and scalable solutions.”
Eco-innovation - European Commission“The eco-innovation initiative bridges the gap between research and the market. It helps good ideas for innovative products, services and processes that protect the environment become fully-fledged commercial prospects, ready for use by business and industry. In doing so the initiative not only helps the EU meet its environmental objectives but also boosts economic growth”.
OPZuid“The Operational Programme South Netherlands 2014-2020 (OPZuid) is a European funding program for the provinces of Zeeland, Limburg and North Brabant. Spearheads are promoting innovation and the transition to a low carbon economy. The program is focused on innovative SMEs and strengthening the cooperation between industry, universities and governments”.
ClimateKICCAREERS
Thank you for your interest in Black Bear!
We’re always looking for passionate people to join our team.FAQs
General
What does Black Bear do?
Black Bear brings the circular economy to tires. We enable the production of valuable raw materials (Carbon Black) from end-of-life tires for re-use in tires, technical rubber products, plastics, paint and ink. We provide technology, product development and marketing and sales expertise of our Carbon Black products. While we are primarily focussed on the production of high quality Carbon Black, the process also yields an important bi-product – green energy. This is in the form of high calorific gas and oil, which can be converted to heat, electricity or steam and provides an additional income stream within the business model. We partner with tire collectors and offer our high quality products as raw materials to the Industry.
What is Carbon Black and how is it traditionally produced?
Carbon Black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured by the controlled vapour-phase pyrolysis and partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Occurring as a fine black powder, Carbon Black is used to provide structure and durability in tires and jet-black coloration in inks, plastics and rubber. Several processes have been used to produce Carbon Black, including the oil-furnace, impingement (channel), lampblack, thermal (decomposition of natural gas) and acetylene (decomposition) processes — in addition to Black Bear’s proven carbonization pyrolysis method. Carbon Black is a form of elemental carbon that is manufactured by the controlled vapour-phase pyrolysis and partial combustion of hydrocarbons. Occurring as a fine black powder, Carbon Black is used to provide structure and durability in tires and jet-black coloration in inks, plastics and rubber. Several processes have been used to produce Carbon Black, including the oil-furnace, impingement (channel), lampblack, thermal (decomposition of natural gas) and acetylene (decomposition) processes — in addition to Black Bear’s proven carbonization pyrolysis method. Carbon Blacks are commonly referred to by the process or the source material from which they are made, e.g. furnace black, lamp black, thermal black, acetylene black and channel black. The different grades from the various processes have certain unique characteristics, but it is now possible to produce reasonable approximations of most of these grades using the oil-furnace process, by which more than 95% of the total output of Carbon Black is produced.
How do you get resources to make Carbon Black?
The Black Bear process uses end-of-life tires to produce carbon black. Each year over one billion tires are removed from vehicles, constituting around 13.5 million tons of solid waste. As tires contain around 25% carbon black. This means that this waste-stream contains approximately 3.4 million tons of carbon black. Through the eyes of BlackBear, a mountain of tires is like a mountain of gold!Therefore we took up the challenge of investigating how to extract the carbon black in a way that is both profitable and friendly to our environment – and perhaps most importantly from a commercial perspective in a way that restores the carbon black to a quality level at least as good as the original product.So Black Bear partners with established tire collectors who can use the Black Bear technology to turn this vast waste stream into a valuable raw material. Before the tires enter the Black Bear process, the steel will be removed and recycled, and the rubber will be converted into granulate.
What is different in your process of making Carbon Black
Traditional furnace or ‘virgin’ carbon black is produced from fossil fuels, by partially burning crude oil under controlled conditions. Depending on the grade it takes between 1.8 and 2.5 litres of fossil fuels to produce 1 kg of carbon black. The standard way of producing carbon black is very polluting. Furnace carbon black manufacturers emit around 38 million tons of CO₂ per year. The ±7.2 million tons of carbon black consumed by the tire industry every year creates an additional environmental issue because after use these tires are mostly burned or landfilled, polluting the environment and wasting the carbon black. In contrast, the Black Bear process uses end-of-life tires as feedstock to produces consistent, high quality carbon blacks. This circular economy approach not only massively reduces CO₂ emissions but also helps solve an important waste management problem. Interestingly, the Black Bear process produces more energy than it consumes, thereby having a beneficial effect on the environment.
Carbon Black (product)
Can your Carbon Black achieve the same quality standards as regular Carbon Black
Yes, with Black Bear’s technology it has become possible to recover high quality carbon blacks that are equal (and in some cases better) than virgin carbon blacks in terms of technical performance. Please see our product pages under ‘Carbon Black users’ for more details or contact us directly!
Does your Carbon Black have a lower Polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) content?
Yes, our process effectively ‘cleans’ furnace carbon blacks to a PAH content of <5ppm. This means our products are extremely clean and very suitable for food- and human contact applications. We are proud to produce the world’s first ‘green and clean’ carbon blacks!
How can I proceed if I am interested in testing your Carbon Black?
You can contact us directly via sales@blackbearcarbon.com. Our team is happy to assist you further.
Can you guarantee a regular supply?
Yes, Black Bear’s first production line produces a stable annual output of 5000 ton/year, allowing us to continuously serve customers across market segments. Considering over 1.5B tires come to the end of their life every year, and we currently process ‘only’ 1-2M of them there is no shortage of supply in the near future! Also, Black Bear is in well progressed conversations with potential partners across the world to add additional production capacity.
What are the benefits of purchasing greener Carbon Black?
Using a more sustainable, ‘greener’ carbon black highly improves the environmental footprint of your products, as well as lowering the PAH content – making it better suitable for food- and human contact applications. Currently, carbon blacks are created by burning oil and/or gas which obviously is a highly polluting process that puts great pressure on the environment and our natural resources. Typically, replacing virgin carbon black with green carbon black from Black Bear saves 5-7 ton CO2 for each ton of substituted material.
Also, with Black Bear’s technology, it has become possible to recover high quality carbon blacks that are equal (and in some cases better) than virgin carbon blacks in terms of technical performance.
Technology Roll Out
Are you planning on rolling out to every country of the world?
Yes, waste tires and the associated environmental problems are in every country of the world. We are very excited to resolve this problem with our Circular Economy approach. We prefer to work with local partners and governments in order to maximize our positive environmental impact.
I am not a tire recycler, can I become a Black Bear partner?
Absolutely. We are looking for partners that can provide us with feedstock (end-of-life) tires, locations, permits and financing. In many cases we also partner with local governments. The best way to get in touch with us is to go to our form and we will get back to you as soon as possible.
How much time does it takes to install a manufacturing plant?
On average the construction of a Black Bear line takes around 6 months assuming a timely access to permits and long lead items from vendors. The design concept is modular and has a nameplate output capacity of around 5 kton of carbon black a year. Black Bear and its contracted engineers will arrange all of the required engineering aspects with detailed consideration into all site-specific conditions and requirements. We will work closely with the tire collector/investor(s) and provide all information required to the authorities, for example, for permitting, to expedite the process.
